Voting systems are tested for federal certification by a “Voting Systems Test Lab” (VSTL) against the voting systems standards. So, one would expect, if a voting system fails to meet the standards it fails testing and cannot be certified. One would expect. However, the voting systems standards give the vendors and the VSTLs an out. B.5 of Appendix B of Volume II of the 2002 VSS and the 2005 VVSG says, “….any uncorrected deficiency that does not involve the loss or corruption of voting data shall not necessarily be cause for rejection.” A Premier voting system was recently recommended for certification by Systest, one of the VSTLs. In the test report Systest reported 79 discrepancies. 77 of those discrepancies were serious but fell within the B.5 “get out of jail free card.” Two of the 79 were serious discrepancies that report loss of data and are not covered by the “get out of jail free card.” Yet the system was recommended for certification and the EAC is considering following that recommendation. (See article immediately below)...

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I can't help but think, after all these huge backdoors are apparently built into these systems, that the spec for them included backwards compatibility with the way elections have been run for decades. That is, rather than just solving the Programming 101 problem of counting votes, the electronic machines are giving visibility to a corruption that goes far far farther than we ever imagined.

This is just a simple matter of accounting. What if it were money instead of votes? Would anyone think that a computerized system of handling checks and money was just fine if money went missing all the time with no explanation? Can you imagine anyone arguing that such a system is fine just because it wasn't very MUCH money that went missing?